Linux user for a couple of years. Only Linux and I love it. Still, some things are wrong, they are wrong, and unfortunately, as I see it, they will always be wrong (yes I'm paid by Microsoft to say this; and yes I get the big bucks from them; and yes that's true, and unfortunately it seems like it's true for a long time now :(

One of the problems many veteran users have with the rise of Ubuntu is how message boards and communities get polluted with the clueless new users. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with looking for a little help or offering some of your own knowledge. But the old adage holds water; one can know just enough to cause trouble

In the past 24-hours with the latest openSUSE 11.1, I’ve had a horrific experience. And while I’ve not given up on the distribution, I’m putting down my experiences here neither as a call for help nor as a rant to keep people away. Rather, an honest approach spreads honest knowledge… and hopefully I will be proved wrong, and others will not make the same “mistakes?” I made.

I'm going to talk about the community's idiotic ... treatment of this subject. Too many other people have talked about what the problems are, and why they do or do not matter, to discuss that would be a waste of my time. I'm going to discuss why those people are all focusing on the WRONG thing.

Until recently I thought Linux was just the domain of enthusiasts and cost-conscious corporates, who for whatever reason, wanted an alternative to Windows. I never thought Linux had a contribution to make to mainstream computing. However, after purchasing a ASUS EeePC, a Linux based subnotebook, I’ve realised that I was wrong, very wrong.

I am currently re-reading an oldish book on post-Piagetian child brain development. It has proved to be a real thought provoker, ironically for me not so much about young children but about the way adults think when you get the communication wrong. Hence the title of the article.

On the 10th of February I updated my original “Is Canonical becoming the new Microsoft?” post to make it clearer that what I was actually asking was about whether the company is becoming the next organisation that we love to hate. Today Sam Varghese has written about a conversation had with Mark Shuttleworth regarding my original post.

I think of this question again and again. For one because because people are asking me. People who love Debian, people who dislike continuous compilation.

The website Planete Beranger recently published an interesting post "Wrong ways to promote the FOSS", from which the title of this post was taken. The core observation of the Beranger argument is: I'll only say that there is no such thing as a "troll". This is a word invented by the most puerile of the FOSS aficionados, unable to cope with the existence of: